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Jul 17, 2017

I’m nearing the end of my analysis of a few popular packaged, junk foods. I sincerely hope that these posts helped you familiarize a little bit on the ingredients and additives used in such foods. One more post coming up later this week, after which I’m done with this project.

In my earlier post, I mentioned that there are a few junk foods that are on top of my “hate” list. One such kids’ favourite treat is this egg shaped Kinder Joy.

From a nutrition perspective, it is loaded with sugar and fat, like most other junk foods. But I hate this particular product for two other reasons:

1. The sheer amount of waste that this product generates. The two outer shells with individual wraps, a plastic spoon, couple of instruction papers/stickers and plastic toys/knick-knacks. The child is excited about the toy for a few seconds, after which it ends up in the garbage bin. How ridiculous this concept is! How much of plastic waste is thrown! Atrocious is the word.

2. The gender prejudice the toy advocates. I’m a mother of a daughter. Even if I choose to overlook the pink/blue packaging differentiation, the toy inside is unbearable. Boys get vehicles/blocks etc while girls get pendants/rings/bracelets with pictures of dolls. Don’t girls have anything better to do other than wear these knick-knacks or play with dolls? What sort of messages are we sending to our girls AND boys? Heights of idiocy!

I had to buy this junk to show the EXACT stuff inside a "for girls"
pack. And while you are at it, do take a look at the amount of waste
generated.

Given the oddly shaped product, it isn’t so easy to read and decipher the ingredients. Here’s the list as mentioned in the pack:

Sugar

Edible vegetable oils and fats

Skimmed cow milk powder (19.5%)

Low fat cocoa powder (4%)

Wheat flour

Toasted wheat germ

Wheat starch

Powdered barley malt extract

Emulsifier (Lecithin - INS 322)

Whey proteins

Raising agents (INS 503ii, INS 500ii)

Salt

The top 2 ingredients make it clear why it is a child’s favourite treat and why it should be thrown out of the shelves. Check out the product’s nutritional Information (per 20 gm):

Energy - 109 Kcal

Protein - 1.6 gm

Carbohydrate - 11.3 gm

- Sugar - 10.2 gm

Fat - 6.4 gm

In simple terms, each Kinder Joy contains a whopping 2.5 tsp of sugar and around 1.38 tsp of fat. Do we even need to worry about the rest of the ingredients, given that the high amounts of sugar and fat is a big enough concern?

It has the same ingredients profile like any other junk foods - wheat flour (maida), lecithin, raising agents etc.

The price point is Rs.40 - for what?

For spoiling our kids’ health

For destroying our planet

For creating idiotic, gender prejudices

If you are affected by even one of these three issues, then let’s stop buying and supporting such products. Kids will understand, if we sit down and explain to them.